This invention is directed to a solar powered passive air filter system utilizing a tall solar powered chimney to generate an air draft for drawing polluted air through a filter medium from a space polluted with particulate matter as for instance from either an open space or from the interior of a structure.
Particulate matter air pollution can be found in garbage dumps, in mining operations, sand and gravel processing and other large scale industrial processing. Currently about the only way to limit or combat such particulate matter air pollution is by "watering down" or water spraying the work area associated with the dump, the mine, the sand and gravel operation area etc.
At best such water spraying is only marginally effective. In those area which can be sprayed the water is subjected to evaporation and drainage and must be continuous re-applied. In many areas water is a very precious resource and can not be wasted. In such a "dry" area water for use in water spraying for particulate matter control is not available and thus this pollution control method simply can not be practiced.
Additionally, a variety of manufacturing processes created undesirable air pollutants within the interior of the factories and manufacturing plants wherein these processes are conducted. Such manufacturing processes contaminate the interior of their factory spaces with air particles such as fine sawdust, fiber glass fines, paint aerosols, sulfur and other chemical dusts, fertilizer dust and other dusts and particulate matter. These are both damaging to the external environment when discharged to the external environment and, hazardous to the employees working within the contaminated air space. Further these fine particles are destructive to machinery operating within the working air space.
Heretofore in order to filter the air in these contaminated manufacturing and/or factory environments, energy consuming filter systems have been utilized. Such filtering systems utilize cyclones or fans to move air through filter medium for removing of the particulate matter from the air. While these systems are certainly efficient and utilitarian they are energy intensive. Further, while they remove one air pollutant, i.e. the particulate matter, they generate other forms of pollution, either directly or indirectly, via the discharge of heat and exhaust gasses utilized to create the energy sources for driving their mechanical air movers.
Passive hot air chimneys are utilized for exhausting waste combustion gasses from heaters, furnaces, kilns, boilers and the like. The hot gasses discharged from such heaters, furnaces, kilns and boilers expand and rise within a chimney creating a draft for not only removing the waste gasses, but also for driving oxygen into the combustion chambers of these devices.
Almost a century ago it was first recognized that a "flue draft" could be utilized in association with a ventilator or a heater for removing cold air adjacent to a floor of a structure which was being heated with the ventilator or heater. Examples of this can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 135,507, 345,107, 886,391 and 908,614.
While almost a century has elapsed since it was recognized that cold air could be removed from the floor of a structure utilizing a ventilator draft, it has heretofore escaped the attention of engineers and air pollution specialists to utilize a hot air draft for powering a filtering system.
Many industrial plants years ago were equipped with what can be termed as "tall stacks." These were utilized to discharge combustion gasses from coal or wood fed burners high in the atmosphere. With the availability of other fuels, such as natural gas and oil, and with increased awareness of the consequences of combustion discharge from these tall stacks, use of these tall stacks has fallen into disfavor and many stand abandoned or have been destroyed.
In many industrial settings a tall stack has been dismantled concurrently with the installation of energy intensive air pollution control systems because of the failure of those in charge of providing for air pollution control to recognize the potential utility of utilizing idle tall stacks as an energy source for pollution control.